Here is a sales management question for you – in terms of coaching and developing your sales team, is it best to focus on your top performers to make them better or your bottom performers to build them up? I have recently read articles that argue from each side of this equation. It’s a good question.
My position would be to manage top-down with a focus on your top performers. The main reason I take this position is retention. I would qualify this position by assessing the top salespeople and adjusting my management style slightly to match their preferred communication, motivation and reward pattern. Simply put, some top salespeople are prima donnas and enjoy much adulation, some prefer an engaged sales manager who is involved in the selling process and others prefer to take a bit of a lone wolf approach.
I would focus on these top people and ensure that they are growing in their roles and supported in their goals. I wouldn’t say I would want to pamper them or overmanage them, but I would want to keep their path as straight and smooth as possible.
The worst scenario would be for the top performers to think they are underappreciated to the point where they leave the company for a new opportunity elsewhere. Just like your top customer is your competitor’s top prospect, in this present employment market, your top salesperson is your competitor’s top candidate.
Now, I’m not focusing on the top performers to the exclusion of the bottom dwellers. Obviously, I would spend time with them and attempt to neutralize their weaknesses and develop their natural strengths. But my priority would be to the top salespeople first.